- Oct 30, 2013
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Short story: I ran SeaTools for DOS on my new Seagate SV35 2TB 7200RPM SATA 6-Gb/s NCQ 64MB Cache DDR2 DRAM ST2000VX000. It detected and repaired 52 bad blocks. Is this normal for a brand new drive or should I return it?
Longer story (can be skipped if the short story provides enough info to answer the question): I've been troubleshooting a problem with my Windows 7 PC where the system will intermittently freeze for 5 to 30 seconds. Sometimes I can move the mouse but not do anything else, other times the mouse pointer will freeze too. Sometimes the mouse pointer changes to a horizontal or vertical line with arrows at both ends. In these cases, I have not been able to change it back except by rebooting. Here's an incomplete list of what hasn't worked:
Virus/malware scan: Nothing detected by AVG or Malwarebytes. Behavior continued after reinstalling Windows 7 on a different drive.
Video drivers: Updating the nVidia GTX560 drivers did nothing. Rolling them back to an earlier version that I knew worked fine did nothing.
Memtest: Passed
Windows "Clean Boot" (all startup programs and non-Windows services disabled): Seemed to solve the problem for several hours but ultimately the behavior returned. That could mean I eventually re-triggered the problem by firing up some program. I'm not sure which one that would be. My best guess right now is Picasa, but I haven't begun chasing that down yet.
When I ran SeaTools for Windows, my OS drive, a 2TB Seagate Barracuda ST2000DM001 failed the Short Test. So I ordered the new drive mentioned at the beginning of this post. (Subsequent research suggests that failing the Short Test has more to do with the drive being managed by Intel Rapid Storage Technology which requires that the drives be identified as RAID in the BIOS, even though I don't actually have a RAID setup.)
When I connected the NEW drive and booted up, it began emitting a soft beep or blip or chirp of some sort every 5 seconds or so. Switching cables and ports didn't help. Disconnecting the OLD drive didn't help. I eventually re-connected the OLD drive but reinstalled Windows 7 on an SSD and ran it from there.
The OLD drive later passed the Short Test in SeaTools for DOS. But it failed the Long Test when SeaTools lost contact with the drive. (I wish I'd written down the exact message.) This led me to re-explore the possibility that there was a problem with the SATA cable and/or the port it was connecting to. By this point I had Windows 7 running smoothly on the SSD (though initially the intermittent freezing behavior had resurfaced. I really think it might be Picasa since I've had no problems since I stopped running that. After I post this, I may fire Picasa up and see what happens. So if that's relevant, I should have an answer soon.)
I plugged the NEW drive (detailed at start of post) into the cable and port that the SSD had been plugged into. Port 0. I then plugged the SSD into Port 1 using one of the cables that I'd previously tried with the hard drive. This worked. The OS runs fine with the SSD in Port 1. (Is there maybe a reason an SSD shouldn't be plugged into Port 0?) The new drive ran fine without beeps.
So last night I ran the SeaTools for DOS Long Test on the NEW drive. It detected 52 bad blocks and FAILED the drive. I told SeaTools for DOS to repair the bad blocks. It did so and now claims the drive "PASSED after Repair" the Long Test--but that's without actually re-running the Long Test.
As I say in the short version, is it normal for a brand new drive to have unrepaired bad blocks? Should I just assume the drive will work fine now that they've been repaired? Or is this situation abnormal and a sign that the drive may be headed for worse failure and I should exchange it for a drive that's clean straight out of the box?
Longer story (can be skipped if the short story provides enough info to answer the question): I've been troubleshooting a problem with my Windows 7 PC where the system will intermittently freeze for 5 to 30 seconds. Sometimes I can move the mouse but not do anything else, other times the mouse pointer will freeze too. Sometimes the mouse pointer changes to a horizontal or vertical line with arrows at both ends. In these cases, I have not been able to change it back except by rebooting. Here's an incomplete list of what hasn't worked:
Virus/malware scan: Nothing detected by AVG or Malwarebytes. Behavior continued after reinstalling Windows 7 on a different drive.
Video drivers: Updating the nVidia GTX560 drivers did nothing. Rolling them back to an earlier version that I knew worked fine did nothing.
Memtest: Passed
Windows "Clean Boot" (all startup programs and non-Windows services disabled): Seemed to solve the problem for several hours but ultimately the behavior returned. That could mean I eventually re-triggered the problem by firing up some program. I'm not sure which one that would be. My best guess right now is Picasa, but I haven't begun chasing that down yet.
When I ran SeaTools for Windows, my OS drive, a 2TB Seagate Barracuda ST2000DM001 failed the Short Test. So I ordered the new drive mentioned at the beginning of this post. (Subsequent research suggests that failing the Short Test has more to do with the drive being managed by Intel Rapid Storage Technology which requires that the drives be identified as RAID in the BIOS, even though I don't actually have a RAID setup.)
When I connected the NEW drive and booted up, it began emitting a soft beep or blip or chirp of some sort every 5 seconds or so. Switching cables and ports didn't help. Disconnecting the OLD drive didn't help. I eventually re-connected the OLD drive but reinstalled Windows 7 on an SSD and ran it from there.
The OLD drive later passed the Short Test in SeaTools for DOS. But it failed the Long Test when SeaTools lost contact with the drive. (I wish I'd written down the exact message.) This led me to re-explore the possibility that there was a problem with the SATA cable and/or the port it was connecting to. By this point I had Windows 7 running smoothly on the SSD (though initially the intermittent freezing behavior had resurfaced. I really think it might be Picasa since I've had no problems since I stopped running that. After I post this, I may fire Picasa up and see what happens. So if that's relevant, I should have an answer soon.)
I plugged the NEW drive (detailed at start of post) into the cable and port that the SSD had been plugged into. Port 0. I then plugged the SSD into Port 1 using one of the cables that I'd previously tried with the hard drive. This worked. The OS runs fine with the SSD in Port 1. (Is there maybe a reason an SSD shouldn't be plugged into Port 0?) The new drive ran fine without beeps.
So last night I ran the SeaTools for DOS Long Test on the NEW drive. It detected 52 bad blocks and FAILED the drive. I told SeaTools for DOS to repair the bad blocks. It did so and now claims the drive "PASSED after Repair" the Long Test--but that's without actually re-running the Long Test.
As I say in the short version, is it normal for a brand new drive to have unrepaired bad blocks? Should I just assume the drive will work fine now that they've been repaired? Or is this situation abnormal and a sign that the drive may be headed for worse failure and I should exchange it for a drive that's clean straight out of the box?
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